Results 5,261-5,280 of 7,126 for speaker:Alan Farrell

Public Accounts Committee: Tusla - Financial Statements 2016 (19 Oct 2017)

Alan Farrell: My only observation is that with Tusla being a new agency only three and a half years old, I would have hoped that we would start afresh with a new organisation and not bring in some of the bad habits - I do not want to call them that, but let us call them what they are - from other Departments. It is lamentable when a new agency, such as Tusla, is bringing €5.2 million of bad habits...

Public Accounts Committee: Tusla - Financial Statements 2016 (19 Oct 2017)

Alan Farrell: From an accountancy perspective, the Comptroller and Auditor General was. That is what appears in Tusla's financial statement.

Public Accounts Committee: Tusla - Financial Statements 2016 (19 Oct 2017)

Alan Farrell: I did.

Public Accounts Committee: Tusla - Financial Statements 2016 (19 Oct 2017)

Alan Farrell: In the agency's three-year plan on procurement, what level of decreases will we expect to see in next year's accounts, for example?

Public Accounts Committee: Tusla - Financial Statements 2016 (19 Oct 2017)

Alan Farrell: Okay. We will wait until next year for that. I mentioned the service level agreements, SLAs, and I will focus for a moment on the compliance side as opposed to anything that might have gone on. Why would it be the case that a third party agency would be subject to a service level agreement it has not signed? Why would Tusla effectively allow six to nine months to pass before receiving...

Public Accounts Committee: Tusla - Financial Statements 2016 (19 Oct 2017)

Alan Farrell: One of the alarming statements in the report was that it is not possible for the agency to provide assurances on all moneys provided to grant-aided agencies. The agency's approach to enhancing governance and control has been to address the areas where there is identified potential risk. We are not talking about a small amount of money. I hope we can see improvements in that. Tusla only...

Public Accounts Committee: Tusla - Financial Statements 2016 (19 Oct 2017)

Alan Farrell: In terms of the 15 identified in this annual report, is it comparable? Let us compare like with like.

Public Accounts Committee: Tusla - Financial Statements 2016 (19 Oct 2017)

Alan Farrell: It is 17, so we have not had a big increase, which is what I was hoping for as Tusla was funding 986 agencies in 2016. Is there a plan to ramp up the number of audits being done to ensure we do not have procurement or expenditure difficulties, or money not being expended correctly?

Public Accounts Committee: Tusla - Financial Statements 2016 (19 Oct 2017)

Alan Farrell: I see.

Public Accounts Committee: Tusla - Financial Statements 2016 (19 Oct 2017)

Alan Farrell: Tusla will be given additional resources next year so will it be in a position to allocate any of them towards an internal audit function? Is that the intention?

Public Accounts Committee: Tusla - Financial Statements 2016 (19 Oct 2017)

Alan Farrell: It is a process and it is being looked at. I am quite surprised by the VAT issue. The agency was operational for two and a half years when the Revenue notified it that it was not to charge VAT. I find that a bit strange. My own dealings with the Revenue Commissioners led me to believe that if I did something wrong, I would know within a week or two at the most. That was back when I was...

Public Accounts Committee: Tusla - Financial Statements 2016 (19 Oct 2017)

Alan Farrell: Very good. My question was to be how much is left to be collected but that is fine. Within the payroll section, there were overpayments of €422,000 in 2015 and that rose to €721,000 in 2016. Why has there been a significant increase? Is this to do with more people being employed or is there some other issue?

Public Accounts Committee: Tusla - Financial Statements 2016 (19 Oct 2017)

Alan Farrell: I see.

Public Accounts Committee: Tusla - Financial Statements 2016 (19 Oct 2017)

Alan Farrell: That is this year.

Public Accounts Committee: Tusla - Financial Statements 2016 (19 Oct 2017)

Alan Farrell: Are there are any non-compliant or non-participating members of staff?

Public Accounts Committee: Tusla - Financial Statements 2016 (19 Oct 2017)

Alan Farrell: The agency increased the provision for doubtful debt by almost 400%.

Public Accounts Committee: Tusla - Financial Statements 2016 (19 Oct 2017)

Alan Farrell: Why was that?

Public Accounts Committee: Tusla - Financial Statements 2016 (19 Oct 2017)

Alan Farrell: Were any overpayments on staff incurred in 2014, the first year, that are still outstanding?

Public Accounts Committee: Tusla - Financial Statements 2016 (19 Oct 2017)

Alan Farrell: I understand. That is fine. The mandatory reporting is clearly an issue at which the agency is staring down the barrel. Does Tusla have sufficient resources to deal with mandatory reporting in less than six weeks? Will the additional 300 personnel to be recruited by the agency in 2017-18 be enough? Is the witness confident that Tusla has the overall resources required to deal with it,...

Public Accounts Committee: Tusla - Financial Statements 2016 (19 Oct 2017)

Alan Farrell: How far into the recruitment process is Tusla?